Asperger’s syndrome

Asperger’s syndrome

Introduction

Asperger’s syndrome(AS) is one of the persuasive developmental disorders characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, nonverbal communications, and repetitive patterns of behaviors and interest. Persuasive Developmental Disorders(PDD) are childhood problems tied to common symptoms such as difficulties with social and emotional aspects of life, trouble with language and communication, and inability to have flexible thoughts. Australian Physician developed Asperger’s syndrome Hans Asperger who observed autism-like behaviors and difficulties with social and communication skills in boys who had average or above intelligence and language development.

Asperger’s syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD)

Asperger syndrome is considered a form of ASD after the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) combined all forms of autism under one umbrella diagnosis termed Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) in 2013. (Lee, Thomas, and Lee, aP.2015). However, some professionals still consider Asperger’s syndrome as a distinctive disorder and which is a less severe form of autism. Asperger’s syndrome is often termed as a high functioning type of ASD since the symptoms in AS are less strict compared to other kids with other types of ASD. Asperger’s syndrome differs from ASD by relatively higher intelligence and natural language. Children show no delayed cognitive language and intellectual development, and they may even show high than average intelligence and cognitive abilities.

Asperger’s syndrome Symptoms

Social interaction limitations

Asperger’s syndrome kids show limited social interaction, which is one of the main symptoms characterizing. AS patients. Asperger’s syndrome individuals often struggle to use nonverbal communications to relate to others, develop peer relationships, or share interests, emotions, or social reciprocity. The child shows few emotions such as never smiling when happy or laugh at a joke, and the child often speaks in a flat, robotic way. A parent will notice the child cannot maintain eye contact, will a miss body language, which is too obvious to other folks, and will always tend to be in their own words.

Preoccupation with one interest.

Children with Asperger’s syndrome tend to show an all-consuming special interest in one or more particular fields marked restriction to these interests. This is one of the leading widespread commonalities among AS children. In a survey performed by Cummings (2017)., 100 percent of parents revealed that their child possessed at least one particular interest, and 99 percent of adults and teenagers said the same thing. The survey further revealed that most of the common special interests included peer-appropriate fads, video, and computer games, maniac obsession with works of art, movies, fictional books or television programs,

Repetitive and stereotyped behavior

Individuals with Asperger’s syndrome often demonstrate encompassing preoccupations, the restricted pattern of interests, inflexible adherence to routines, repetitive motor mannerisms (such as hand flapping, rocking), and a preoccupation with parts of objects.

Prevalence of Asperger’s syndrome

According to data released by the America Medical Association, 2.7% of Americans, around 6 million people, are Asperger’s. (Jessica, 2018.) CBC data says1 out of 500 kids have been identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Asperger’s syndrome is more prevalent in males, with one female suffering from the condition in every four males with AS.  Genetic and environmental factors put individuals in the risk of developing the disorder. There has been a steady increase with the number of patients suffering from this condition of the period of years.

Causes of Asperger’s syndrome

The exact causes of Asperger’s syndrome are not known. In the past centuries, developmental disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome were believed to be caused by parents who were distant and unemotional to their children. According to Sato, Kochiyama, Uono,  Yoshimura,  Kubota, Sawada, et al. (2017), researches in the 1980s showed that PDD disorders are a result of dysfunction in the brain anatomy. There is, however, no yet observed consistent abnormalities in the brain among the AS patients with the currently available testing, such as blood tests or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Asperger’s syndrome may have a genetic root.  Pervasive developmental disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome have been seen to run within families proving inherited genetic mutations may cause the disorder. Environmental factors are also believed to play a role in the development of this condition.

Diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome

Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis involves both developmental history and observation assessments. The DSM-IV criteria for Asperger’s diagnosis specify that the individual must possess sustained impairment in social interaction and inhibit restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities that must cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. To be diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and differentiated from other Autism Spectrum Disorders, the child must show normal language development as well as normal intelligence. Children with AS have frequent experiences of depression, anxiety, and hyperactivity and sometimes get misdiagnosed with one of the conditions. Asperger’s syndrome is often diagnosed late in children than other forms of Autism

Treatments and management

There is no single treatment solely focused on correcting Asperger’s syndrome. However, there is a range of strategies and approaches that may be helpful to AS individuals. A variety of therapies is available in the management of some of the Asperger’s syndrome symptoms.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps individuals learn to control their emotions and decrease obsessive interest and repetitive routines. Cognitive behavior therapy helps individuals learn how to act socially around people and how to cope up with their feelings. The treatment teaches essential skills such as controlling impulses, anxiety, fears, obsessions, interrupting, and tantrums

Social skills therapy

Social skills therapy can help Asperger’s syndrome patients improve nonverbal communication skills interaction skills. These skills include learning to take turns while speaking, making and maintaining eye contacts, showing emotion expressions and learning to talk about a variety of topics

Physical therapy helps those with sensory integration problems or poor motor condonation improve their movement and locomotion skills. Physical therapy helps to develop individual core strength. This will help Asperger’s syndrome patients with running, jumping, pedaling, walking up and downstairs, and other physical movement activities

Interesting facts about Asperger’s syndrome

Asperger’s is considered a form of ASD but differs in a few key aspects. Even though AS IS Characterized by autism-like difficulties with social and communication skills, AS individuals usually have average or above intelligence and language development. They show genius skills in STEM-related courses and even in some cognitive games such as chess. Ghazi Uddin, M. (2018) in A Guide for Parents and Professionals views Asperger’s syndrome as a fundamental aspect of identity, and it not an illness nor a disease. Surprisingly, most of the famous scientist and renown authors and actors such as Paul Dirac an influential physician, Boddy fisher the renown chess grandmaster, Emily Dickinson renown literature writer, Tim Burton Hollywood director and even Albert Einstein the most famous scientist and a mathematician are/ were believed to have Asperger’s syndrome!

References

Cummings, K. S. (2017). Using Explicit Social Skills Instruction Combined with a Restricted Interest Group to Increase the Frequency of Social Skills in Students with Autism.

Ghaziuddin, M. (2018). Medical Aspects of Autism and Asperger Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Lee, P. F., Thomas, R. E., & Lee, P. A. (2015). Approach to autism spectrum disorder: Using the new DSM-V diagnostic criteria and the CanMEDS-FM framework. Canadian Family Physician, 61(5), 421-424.

The prevalence of autism in the U.S. remains steady, new data suggest (2018). Jessica Wright. Spectrum news.

Sato, W., Kochiyama, T., Uno, S., Yoshimura, S., Kubota, Y., Sawada, R., … & Toichi, M. (2017). Reduced gray matter volume in the social brain network in adults with an autism spectrum disorder. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 11, 395.